In most every fantasy epic, the king and his court ultimately arise, vanquish the foe and ascend to Valhalla or a comparable place of rest, relaxation and, usually, a big-ass party of food, drink and pleasurable company.
Getting there almost always involves a titanic struggle and at least one setback so severe it seems our heroes will never recover from the heartbreak and destruction. If your epic doesn’t have this well, for my money you don’t have an epic.
College basketball doesn’t have any (well, many) beheadings at the hands of power-mad evil kings or unrepentant hobgoblins. But it does have Blood Week, and friends: this week has been straight out of a George R.R. Martin novel (back when he did those).
As of this writing, it is 11:13 p.m. on the East Coast on Wednesday night and the following has already transpired since Tuesday (and we didn’t even have a top-25 team in action on Monday):
Nebraska 88, No. 1 Purdue 72 in Lincoln
Iowa State 57, No. 2 Houston 53 in Ames
UCF 65, No. 3 Kansas 60 in Orlando
Mississippi State 77, No. 5 Tennessee 72 in Starkville
TCU 80, No. 9 Oklahoma 71 in Fort Worth
Butler 69, No. 11 Marquette 62 in Milwaukee
Boise State 65, No. 17 Colorado State 58 in Boise
Virginia Tech 87, No. 21 Clemson 72 in Blacksburg
Note that this doesn’t even include BYU falling against a fellow ranked team in Baylor or Texas (one-point win against Cincinnati), San Diego State (three-point win at San Jose State), UConn (led by 14 with 4:24 left but had allowed Xavier back within one possession with 15 seconds to go) or Memphis (taken to overtime by an absolutely crud UTSA team). That’s 13 top-25 teams taking a big L or coming alarmingly close in the first half of the week.
Again—it’s Wednesday, now at about 11:34 on the East Coast. A reeling FAU takes on the hell-in-high tops Tulane team. Illinois hosts the curled monkey’s paw that is Michigan State. Gonzaga has to go to Santa Clara. And that just gets us to the weekend! By my count, there are another nine games on Saturday between ranked and unranked teams where the unranked team winning wouldn’t be a complete stunner—in fact, given the recent goings-on, it might be more stunning if UCF doesn’t ritually drown BYU in Mountain Dew on Saturday.
A top-10 team is guaranteed to go 0-for-the week when Oklahoma and Kansas meet in Lawrence and it could be Kansas.
The sky isn’t falling for anyone at this point in the season, but these losses can be pretty clearly separated into three distinct camps. So let’s do that.
It’s Fine
Houston The Cougars are not the first team to suffer an Amesing and they won’t be the last.
Oklahoma TCU is a very well-coached team that played the absolute worst schedule of practically any team in the country. And yet, they played Kansas to a draw to open Big 12 play and then beat OU fairly handily. They’re fine and this probably won’t be the last highly-ranked team they beat this year.
Colorado State The Mountain West is going to continue eating its young. The erstwhile co-favorite here is not immune to that, no matter how much it may wish itself so. All Colorado State had to do to lose at Boise was go completely cold from three, shoot 13 fewer free-throws, commit a half-dozen more turnovers… and they were still within two possessions with 1:31 to go. Fine. They will be fine.
Mildly Concerning
Purdue Perhaps this should be in the genuinely upsetting pile. However, watching that game, I couldn’t help but think it wasn’t a referendum on Purdue so much as a cosmic alignment for Nebraska. The Cornhuskers went thermonuclear from three—14-for-23, tied for the 10th-best shooting night from distance on that many attempts by any team this season. Whenever Purdue did anything, Keisei Tominaga or another Husker hit a three. It happens sometimes.
Tennessee Losing to Mississippi State is not, in a vacuum, a disaster. Surrendering 77 points to the Bulldogs—a team ranked lower than Toledo in adjusted offensive efficiency—isn’t what you want. Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka both fouled out, which… SEC refs, amirite? CLANGA shot 50 percent as a team—a mark not hit by an unranked team against Tennessee since Missouri last February, so something of an aberration. Outside of Zakai Ziegler and Dalton Knecht, no one could score. File this under “probably okay, but it sure would help if Jordan Gainey or Santiago Vescovi or Moonshine JJJ would all refrain from no-showing the same game again.”
Genuinely Upsetting
Kansas The Jayhawks shot a season-low 11 free-throws, misfired all night from three and had overall their worst offensive half of the season in the second at UCF. They lost by five to a pretty crud Knights team. I’m much more concerned that the Metrics are starting to consider Kansas as a bit mid (19th at KenPom, 15th in NET, 13th at EvanMiya) and… a bit mid occasionally loses to UCF by five on the road, if we’re being honest?
Marquette Lost to Butler at home to fall to 11-5. Have now lost three of five dating back to December 19. The shine is off the early-season wins against Illinois and Kansas. Last season’s top-10 offense via KenPom is currently mired in the mid-40s and blaming it all on the departure of Olivier-Maxence Prosper simply ain’t it. The lack of interior presence is not terribly surprising; the lack of bench production (less than 20 points per game) puts even more on Oso Ighodaro, Tyler Kolek (quietly not having a great season) and Kam Jones.
Clemson Quickly reverting back to football school status the way God intended.
This was the week for the goblins. They won’t all be like this, but the blood-spilling might not be over just yet either.